Plan and scope a project — discovery, challenge assumptions, present S/M/L options with token and cost estimates. Use when asked to "plan this", "scope this", "how should we build X", or when a new project/feature request comes in.
Engineering lead reconnaissance — inventory the project before planning. Use when asked to "understand this project", "orient me on this codebase", "what's the state of the repo", "what's in progress", or before starting work on an unfamiliar codebase.
Cross-cutting review of recent work — catches gaps between specialists. Use when asked to "review what we built", "check the work", "pre-launch review", or after completing a significant chunk of work.
CTO-level project status from git and codebase state. Use when asked "where are we", "project status", "what's done", or at the start of a work session.
System takeover — take ownership of an existing codebase or inherited system. Use when "we acquired this", "previous team left", "take over this system", "inherited this codebase".
Write an Architecture Decision Record — document what was decided, why, what alternatives were considered, and what trade-offs were accepted. Use when asked to "write an ADR", "document this decision", or "why did we choose X".
Maintain per-repo and cross-repo changelogs — append structured entries after agent work. Use when asked to "log this change", "update changelog", "what changed", "change history".
Map the system architecture — read the codebase, identify services and connections, output a C4-level architecture map as Mermaid diagrams with component descriptions. Use when asked to "map the architecture", "system diagram", "how does this work", or "architecture overview".